Tuesday
A man came to the clinic asking for medicine for his sick child. I was in a bit of a hurry and had helped this family before, as it seemed this little girl was often sick. I found some children's Tylenol, gave him a couple of doses for the child and asked if there was anything else I could do for him. (Truthfully, I suspected this man of being one who takes advantage of others and just wanted to see what he could get from the "rich foreigners"). He then asked for rice for his family, but we didn't have extra at the time. I was in a hurry and wanted to finish my business as I insincerely asked if there was anything else he needed. He eventually said yes, that he needed money to buy rice for his family. I told him it is not our policy as an organization to give out money. He said he understood and then went home.
I told him I would go to his village and do check-ups on Friday.
Friday
I went to his village. I would often go there on my time off to visit with my "tribal family" anyway, so I didn't mind doing it. When I finally started doing check-ups, it was already past 4:30 and I had about 2 hours of daylight before it was dark and I'd have to stop due to the absence of electricity and light. More and more people showed up and I was feeling a bit over whelmed at the number of people and the amount of time I had. It was dark and I was a bit tired and tried to hurry through the last few patients. The man's wife and child who asked for rice for his family came and I listened to the child’s breathing, gave the child some paracetamol for her fever and antibiotics for any respitory infection and said she probably had a cough and cold as I did not see anything alarmingly wrong with the child. I finished up ate dinner with my tribal family and went back to the other village I where I had been staying.
Saturday
I got word that the sick child, Kayla, a beautiful 2 year old, was in the hospital. I reasoned I shouldn't rush right away and waited.
Monday
Monday came, and that afternoon, I thought I needed to check on Kayla. I got to the government hospital and asked where the child was. The nurses pointed to the ICU. I had no idea her sickness was so serious. When I got in the room, there she was, in a stupor on the bed with her mother (who was in a devastated state from the child's grave condition). Kayla was breathing on her own, but would only attempt to move occasionally and could not move her eyes and had no pupil response to light. I stayed at the hospital that night and prayed over the child throughtout the night.
Tuesday
I talked with the doctor. He said there was nothing more they could do and suggested they go to the next biggest city for a CT scan to see if there was swelling in the brain that could be relieved by some type of surgical operation. The family was worried about money and hesitant to go. I encouraged them to go and said I'd go with them. The father said he had to stay home with his other children, so I would meet the mother there later. That evening I went to the government hospital in Tuegagarao to find the family, but many of the wards were so crowded that there were patients lining the hallways. I finally found Kayla and they were in the hallway of the Pediatric ward, the "charity" section of each ward for the poor. She was hooked up to an IV and left there in the hallway. The father arrived about the same time I did and we took her for a chest x-ray. Kayla had a gastric drainage tube that drained a bleeding ulcer. The x-ray pointed toward TB and at this point the doctors still did not know exactly why she went into a stupor, but suspected TB, meningitis, or encephalitis. That night she stopped breathing. An ambu bag was used to resuscitate her, as at this point, she went in to a full coma, unresponsive to anything. People in the hospital would watch as we were resuscitating her like it was a daytime drama. I got angry and yelled for them to go away. We took turns pumping the ambu bag non-stop for the next couple of days. I got a few hours of sleep in an empty hospital bed that night, but the mother had only slept about 3 hours in the past 4 days.
Wednesday
Wednesday came and things were not looking up. The mother was not functioning well from lack of sleep, food, and grieving over her dying child. Kayla still had not gotten a CT scan, our whole reason for going two hours away to another hospital to be ignored by the health workers as we sat in the hallway. There was no progress during that day and I told the parents I'd go find a hotel to get some sleep that night or I'd be useless.
Thursday
I awoke to the thought that Kayla might not have made it through the night. I knew they had a CT scan scheduled for the morning at another hospital, so I'd meet them there. When I got to the hospital, I asked if the transportation had arrived from the government hospital, I was told "yes" and waited in the CT scan waiting area. When the x-ray tech came out I asked him about Kayla, he said the family was not there and called the other hospital to see why. The doctor said she was not stable enough to leave the hospital. I rushed to the hospital and she was there, but her condition had not changed. Finally I demanded to talk with her doctor to find out why nothing was being done for this child. The doctor basically said they thought she was brain dead and medications were keeping her heart beating and the ambu bag keeping her lungs moving. They were waiting for her to die. Later that day, the father said he'd go check on his other children and if I could stay to help with Kayla. I said yes and waited. About 3:30pm, Kayla's heartbeat began to slow to 60bpm to 40bpm till it stopped beating. Chest compressions were done, but the heart would not keep beating. Kayla was dead.
The rest of the day consisted of the mother and I arguing, and sometimes angrily, with guards and hospital staff that would take the body of Kayla to their morgue and not allow the mother to take her child back to her province for funeral preparations unless she could pay all of the hospital bill right then. She would not be allowed to leave until bills were paid in full. While the mother was attempting to complete the paperwork, I sat in front of that dirty morgue holding Kayla and wishing the mother did not have to go through all of this. She did not have enough money and was in no state to worry about billing and the massive amount of paperwork that was required to be discharged from the hospital. Together we were able to pay the bill and get transportation back to her home that night.
The most heart-breaking sounds I have ever heard was this mother weeping over her child. I don't think I can ever forget that sound or that image of her holding her dead child screaming for the child to answer her. I don't ever want to see the father wiping his face continually from the tears that wouldn't stop. I don't know why the child died. Maybe God had me there to be with the family. I cannot tell them why God did not answer their prayers to heal Kayla. The spinal tap revealed she had bacterial meningitis.
The very next week, the other two siblings of Kayla were in the hospital with similar symptoms as Kayla. When I visited them and asked if I could pray for the children, the mother's response was, "it doesn't do any good" and "I think God is punishing us". I don't know how to respond to the mother except that God is good and he does not change. I can just be there, pray and allow God to work through me to love them and show them that God does care so much for this family. I pray that He will continue to reveal more of his love to them through this situation.
The children are doing well now and they were discharged from the hospital after a week. We had the other two children checked for TB and they were found to be positive. We are currently sponsoring their medications for the next 6 months.
I pray I will not ever be in too much of a hurry to stop and help a needy family or individual. I pray that I won't refuse someone daily necessities because I don't want to bother or don't want to give from my own pocket. And I pray that every interaction with people God places in my path will be full of love, compassion and mercy.
Thank all of you for your friendships, support and prayer... to see how you can be involved with mercyinaction go to "how to support" section.
Our greatest purpose in life is to love God and love others.
A man came to the clinic asking for medicine for his sick child. I was in a bit of a hurry and had helped this family before, as it seemed this little girl was often sick. I found some children's Tylenol, gave him a couple of doses for the child and asked if there was anything else I could do for him. (Truthfully, I suspected this man of being one who takes advantage of others and just wanted to see what he could get from the "rich foreigners"). He then asked for rice for his family, but we didn't have extra at the time. I was in a hurry and wanted to finish my business as I insincerely asked if there was anything else he needed. He eventually said yes, that he needed money to buy rice for his family. I told him it is not our policy as an organization to give out money. He said he understood and then went home.
I told him I would go to his village and do check-ups on Friday.
Friday
I went to his village. I would often go there on my time off to visit with my "tribal family" anyway, so I didn't mind doing it. When I finally started doing check-ups, it was already past 4:30 and I had about 2 hours of daylight before it was dark and I'd have to stop due to the absence of electricity and light. More and more people showed up and I was feeling a bit over whelmed at the number of people and the amount of time I had. It was dark and I was a bit tired and tried to hurry through the last few patients. The man's wife and child who asked for rice for his family came and I listened to the child’s breathing, gave the child some paracetamol for her fever and antibiotics for any respitory infection and said she probably had a cough and cold as I did not see anything alarmingly wrong with the child. I finished up ate dinner with my tribal family and went back to the other village I where I had been staying.
Saturday
I got word that the sick child, Kayla, a beautiful 2 year old, was in the hospital. I reasoned I shouldn't rush right away and waited.
Monday
Monday came, and that afternoon, I thought I needed to check on Kayla. I got to the government hospital and asked where the child was. The nurses pointed to the ICU. I had no idea her sickness was so serious. When I got in the room, there she was, in a stupor on the bed with her mother (who was in a devastated state from the child's grave condition). Kayla was breathing on her own, but would only attempt to move occasionally and could not move her eyes and had no pupil response to light. I stayed at the hospital that night and prayed over the child throughtout the night.
Tuesday
I talked with the doctor. He said there was nothing more they could do and suggested they go to the next biggest city for a CT scan to see if there was swelling in the brain that could be relieved by some type of surgical operation. The family was worried about money and hesitant to go. I encouraged them to go and said I'd go with them. The father said he had to stay home with his other children, so I would meet the mother there later. That evening I went to the government hospital in Tuegagarao to find the family, but many of the wards were so crowded that there were patients lining the hallways. I finally found Kayla and they were in the hallway of the Pediatric ward, the "charity" section of each ward for the poor. She was hooked up to an IV and left there in the hallway. The father arrived about the same time I did and we took her for a chest x-ray. Kayla had a gastric drainage tube that drained a bleeding ulcer. The x-ray pointed toward TB and at this point the doctors still did not know exactly why she went into a stupor, but suspected TB, meningitis, or encephalitis. That night she stopped breathing. An ambu bag was used to resuscitate her, as at this point, she went in to a full coma, unresponsive to anything. People in the hospital would watch as we were resuscitating her like it was a daytime drama. I got angry and yelled for them to go away. We took turns pumping the ambu bag non-stop for the next couple of days. I got a few hours of sleep in an empty hospital bed that night, but the mother had only slept about 3 hours in the past 4 days.
Wednesday
Wednesday came and things were not looking up. The mother was not functioning well from lack of sleep, food, and grieving over her dying child. Kayla still had not gotten a CT scan, our whole reason for going two hours away to another hospital to be ignored by the health workers as we sat in the hallway. There was no progress during that day and I told the parents I'd go find a hotel to get some sleep that night or I'd be useless.
Thursday
I awoke to the thought that Kayla might not have made it through the night. I knew they had a CT scan scheduled for the morning at another hospital, so I'd meet them there. When I got to the hospital, I asked if the transportation had arrived from the government hospital, I was told "yes" and waited in the CT scan waiting area. When the x-ray tech came out I asked him about Kayla, he said the family was not there and called the other hospital to see why. The doctor said she was not stable enough to leave the hospital. I rushed to the hospital and she was there, but her condition had not changed. Finally I demanded to talk with her doctor to find out why nothing was being done for this child. The doctor basically said they thought she was brain dead and medications were keeping her heart beating and the ambu bag keeping her lungs moving. They were waiting for her to die. Later that day, the father said he'd go check on his other children and if I could stay to help with Kayla. I said yes and waited. About 3:30pm, Kayla's heartbeat began to slow to 60bpm to 40bpm till it stopped beating. Chest compressions were done, but the heart would not keep beating. Kayla was dead.
The rest of the day consisted of the mother and I arguing, and sometimes angrily, with guards and hospital staff that would take the body of Kayla to their morgue and not allow the mother to take her child back to her province for funeral preparations unless she could pay all of the hospital bill right then. She would not be allowed to leave until bills were paid in full. While the mother was attempting to complete the paperwork, I sat in front of that dirty morgue holding Kayla and wishing the mother did not have to go through all of this. She did not have enough money and was in no state to worry about billing and the massive amount of paperwork that was required to be discharged from the hospital. Together we were able to pay the bill and get transportation back to her home that night.
The most heart-breaking sounds I have ever heard was this mother weeping over her child. I don't think I can ever forget that sound or that image of her holding her dead child screaming for the child to answer her. I don't ever want to see the father wiping his face continually from the tears that wouldn't stop. I don't know why the child died. Maybe God had me there to be with the family. I cannot tell them why God did not answer their prayers to heal Kayla. The spinal tap revealed she had bacterial meningitis.
The very next week, the other two siblings of Kayla were in the hospital with similar symptoms as Kayla. When I visited them and asked if I could pray for the children, the mother's response was, "it doesn't do any good" and "I think God is punishing us". I don't know how to respond to the mother except that God is good and he does not change. I can just be there, pray and allow God to work through me to love them and show them that God does care so much for this family. I pray that He will continue to reveal more of his love to them through this situation.
The children are doing well now and they were discharged from the hospital after a week. We had the other two children checked for TB and they were found to be positive. We are currently sponsoring their medications for the next 6 months.
I pray I will not ever be in too much of a hurry to stop and help a needy family or individual. I pray that I won't refuse someone daily necessities because I don't want to bother or don't want to give from my own pocket. And I pray that every interaction with people God places in my path will be full of love, compassion and mercy.
Thank all of you for your friendships, support and prayer... to see how you can be involved with mercyinaction go to "how to support" section.
Our greatest purpose in life is to love God and love others.
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